Fort Hood Leaves Soldiers Still Asking Who Is Accountable to Them

Justice not served at Fort Hood with Hasan conviction and still has not been. Too many questions unanswered and too few held accountable for what they allowed to happen. Ft. Hood victims and survivors deserve answers but unless the media is pushing that point, lawmakers supposedly in charge of what the DOD does and does not do, will never happen.

Wounded Times has been screaming about this since it happened.

Like everyone else I was stunned but I was also remembering what I saw at Fort Hood when I was there a few months before. Soldiers and families hanging around the food court much like civilian families do at the mall. Shopping carriages filled with supplies for families and usually young children hitching a ride from Mom and Dad. Unlike the mall, this is a close community where you have to show a military ID before getting in. It was a place where they were supposed to feel safe.

The shooting was at Fort Hood but every member of the military felt it.

Purple Hearts for those killed and wounded at Fort Hood are an acknowledgment of what was done to some of them, but not to all of them. The aftermath of the Fort Hood massacre was, as we discovered far worse than originally imagined.

Well finally the Wall Street Journal has taken a look at what was not done after this deadly day from hell. As you'll read, it was written from someone who didn't just read about it. She was there when it happened!

The Army’s Fort Hood Disgrace
No one who supervised the shooter has been held to account, but the victims are denied pay and benefits.
Wall Street Journal
By KATHY PLATONI
March 19, 2015

It was more than five years ago that the gunshots rang out, but those of us who survived can still hear their echoes. On Nov. 5, 2009, an Army psychiatrist named Nidal Hasan—an American radicalized by extremist Islamic beliefs—opened fire on his fellow soldiers in Fort Hood, Texas, killing 14 people, including an unborn child, and wounding 32.

I was there. A beloved friend, Capt. John Gaffaney, died at my knees. I was slated to become the shooter’s direct supervisor and later learned I was at the top of his hit list.

That day has faded from the minds of most Americans. But the survivors and the families of the deceased continually relive its horror. They also continue to face betrayal by the government they served.

It is a gross miscarriage of justice that no one who supervised the shooter—overlooked his behavior and promoted him—has been held accountable. That the massacre is still labeled an incident of workplace violence committed by a disgruntled employee is delusional and contemptible. Because the massacre was not recognized as a terrorist attack, victims were deemed ineligible for combat-injury benefits, the Purple Heart, and its civilian counterpart, the Defense of Freedom medal. Three successive defense secretaries refused to change this designation, and five years passed.

Survivors of the massacre and the families of the dead are now finding some measure of justice. Congress has rewritten the language governing fallen warriors, and Army Secretary John McHugh has announced that Fort Hood victims will receive long-overdue medals. They will be offered burial plots at Arlington National Cemetery and compensation pay upon retirement. But further details remain unclear. For instance, Staff Sgt. Shawn Manning, whom Hasan shot six times, told reporters last year that because his injuries were not classified as combat-related, he lost roughly $70,000 in benefits and $2,500 a month in pay. Will he be made whole?
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